Agent 00Soul

I've tried lots of string brands over the years. Here are some of my experiences off the top of my head, if they are of any use to any one. I didn't include stuff I don't remember any more or are discontinued. Also to note, unlike a lot of flat players I change string sets when they wear out. In no particular order: Sadowsky - best strings over all in both sound and how long they last, but expensive Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Nickel - the most comfortable to play and sound great, long lasting but when they die they really die La Bella Deep Talkin' - sounded great on the hollow bodies but a bit muddy on the solid body, but I replaced them with... Pyramid Gold - my hollow/semi-hollows are strung with these, very long-lasting but also expensive Rotosound Jazz 77 - the closest flat I've found to a round wound twang and treble, stiffest tension but worth it if you want the sound without the grinding and fret noise Rotosound Tru Bass - tapewound but sound like flats, surprisingly bouncy sound on a P-bass D'Addario Chromes - deep bouncy sound but wear out too quickly GHS Brite Flats - nothing special

I have a 50p coin for the first player I see with one of these.

That explains a lot. The mid-80s was when I first started playing bass. I got so sick of being unable to sound like the stuff I liked, even after a revolving door of basses and amps, that I just quit. In the late 90s, with bands like Stereolab and Air as well as Serge Gainsbourg and the "Melodie Nelson" bass sound as a talking point, in the magazine interviews and also musicians on the ground, everyone seemed to be saying said flats on the bass were the crucial ingredient. So I bought a set and that was the sound I hadn't heard before on one of my instruments. I played non-stop until Covid, age, and changing countries more or less put me out of action. But the vast majority of players I interacted with in those decades, used flats too - even for hard rock and psych.

All my basses are strung with flats, including my Jaguar which has the same pickups as a Jazz. Rounds and grounds just didn't do it for me. I'm in a bit of a musical bubble here where we all use flats, but I'm assuming from the amount of stuff for sale that the vast majority of players use rounds primarily?

It is interesting how these trends go. When the amps first came out, they were the best thing since sliced bread. For the past few years, they really fell out of style. I hadn't seen a pro playing one in ages. TC Electronic itself has been moving to the lower end of the market for many years now. Nonetheless, if I had a young relative who was considering to learn bass, I would definitely recommend buying one of their cheaper combos based on my experience with the RH450.

I was in a shoegaze/dreampop band on and off in the 2000s and 2010s called Soundpool. As if you can't tell from the rig in the photo. It's the most stereotypical shoegaze bass image ever.

I have a RH450 and RS212 speaker cab that I bought the year they came out, years before the RH750 came along (or I probably would have bought that). I guess that was around 2010/11 and never had a problem. I basically played through it several times a week until Covid. It transversed North America multiple times. It only broke once and sounded fantastic in dreampop, garage rock, and cinematic bands once I dialled in the EQ. It could even hold it's own in what had to be one of the loudest bands NYC - we played at near-My Bloody Valentine levels. I would pull it out of storage and use it again if I returned to playing music. Maybe yours was a lemon?

I bought a 2011 Fender Japan Jaguar bass new as my backup. When I switched bands, I started using it as my #1 for the mental change and it broke in much faster. Once it had broken-in, it sounded so good that it became my main bass. It still is. Fender Japan is fantastic! The body is alder or ash, not basswood, but I'm sure it would have been the same situation.

So beautiful! I have Jazz that looks very similar but is a Frankenbass, made from various parts of Fender, Warmouth, Bass Centre, and maybe Seymour Duncan (I can't remember anymore). This stock instrument looks nicer as it's untouched. Fender Japan comes up with the most creative, beautiful stuff!

They give your bass the bounce it needs.

I have to say, that's far and away my favourite bass distortion pedal ever, and I've used lots. It was the first stompbox on my board and it's the only original one still left. Never stopped using it lots.

I once got chastised by John Hall on Facebook. I took it like a man.

I used to always mod my instruments in my teens and 20s - putting a Precision pickup on a Jazz Bass, EMGs on a Rickenbacker 4003, Seymour Duncans in my Jazzmaster (although that was a swap, no mods needed), installing a pickup selector switch on the same Jazz and then changing it to a blend knob. It was a popular thing to do in the 70s and 80s, I stopped all that in the early 1990s. It just dawned on me: "Do you really think you know better than Leo Fender or <fill in the blank pro designer>?" I'm now kind of mortified I ever did those things....especially to that Rickenbacker. Presumably it's still out there somewhere. Although I did swap out that old Precision pickup in the Jazz for a Bruce Thomas from Bass Centre a few years ago, so I guess I can still be persuaded.

Cream and tortoiseshell - the most mid-century modern of all colour combinations. I want to play it while sitting in my lefty Eames chair! BTW have you ever tried Sadowsky strings? I swear by their flats. Our practice space used to be next door to their factory and I would just walk over and buy them.

Are you familiar with this gent? I saw him with his "radio orchestra" a few weeks back in Liverpool. https://www.bdsentertainments.co.uk/ I have to say that they were hands down the best 20s/30s act I've ever seen and I've seen lots. The audience was, as you said, mostly people over 50, but there were also lots of young people who are on the retro circuit who were dressed so perfectly, that I felt I was in a costume drama.

Has anyone watched Geddy Lee’s TV show “Are Bass Players Human Too?”? I’ve only seen two episodes so far - the ones with Melissa Auf der Maur and Krist Novoselic - and was wondering what the community thought.

That's really cool. My last band was also instrumental and I loved it.

Are you doing the Bangles' 3-4 part harmonies?

I've been on a garage rock kick lately. The best thing about that is I can usually learn the bass, rhythm guitar, and lead solo quickly. This morning I did Help You Ann by The Lyres.

Another thing to remember: basses, like all wooden instruments, need to be broken in for their sound and playability to be at their best. If you play all the time, this can happen within a year. For most weekend warriors it can take longer. It's something else to consider when judging new vs used (and of course not all used instruments are broken in).

How did you do that? Ebay/Reverb/Facebook, consignment/sale to a shop, private sale?

Good point - the generations who were really into gear are in the downsizing era of their lives now, or soon will be. And the younger ones don’t fetishise gear as much (a good thing IMHO) and could never afford this stuff anyway so never developed as strong an attachment maybe. Either way, it sounds like the numbers of market value are hugely inflated. And they don’t tell you how long an item was for sale before some person with money showed up.